Champagne Brut Nature
Anthocya

The Champagne Anthocya carries the key to its own identity in its name, that of the anthocyanins, the pigments that shape its colour without resorting to the usual paths of Rosé. Fabrice Agrapart signs here an original and precisely controlled method, developed by his own hand, which is neither a saignée nor a blend with red wine and which entrusts the Pinot Noir component alone with the task of releasing its chromatic matter. The picture remains entirely that of the Côte des Blancs, between the luminous craie of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and the slopes of Vertus, a territory that gives Rosé finesse and verticality in place of vinosity, offering a reading that is new and deeply personal to the Domaine.

This edition, from the 2023 harvest, is a blend of 98% Chardonnay grapes and 2% Pinot Noir, picked respectively in the Grand Cru of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and from the Premier Cru of Vertus. Vinification and maturation proceed with indigenous yeasts and a fully completed malolactic fermentation, with the contribution of oak from the Montagne de Reims and an approach that forgoes fining and filtration, a choice in keeping with bottling under cork. After bottling comes around twenty-four months of ageing on the lees, with riddling carried out by hand and a dégorgement performed with no final dosage, in a Brut Nature style.

On tasting, Anthocya shows a soft and luminous pink gold, crossed by an extremely fine perlage, with an aromatic range weaving citrus, green apple and floral shades into delicate hints of strawberry and small red fruits. On the palate the substance is creamy and enveloping, supported by bright acidity and by a chalky texture that dictates contrast and definition, with an almost imperceptible tannic presence that keeps any vinous weight at bay. Balance is measured in finesse rather than power, while the structure stays slender and the persistence unfolds long and dry, closing on a saline finish of rare clarity.